We now have all the evidence we need that Donald Trump is a sick man, relishing the display of his TV celebrity status above any concern with (or understanding for) governing the country whose laws and Constitution he has recently sworn to defend. This is frightening, amusing, thrilling, or rewarding, depending on where your sympathies lie. The newspapers and magazines and TV screens and the blogosphere will be all about one topic for the foreseeable future. With any kind of good luck, though, increasing exposure will slowly have its effect, and even the presently thrilled will come to understand that here is a man whose limitless love affair with himself has the potential to wreak serious damage on our country. We now know for sure that Trump has got to go. The question is no longer whether, but how.
There would seem to be three possibilities. One, he is declared by competent medical authorities to be afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a malady formally recognized by the medical establishment (in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (AKA the DSM), fifth edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013). His symptoms are a perfect fit, and such a person is by definition disqualified to be in charge of any important matter not directly concerned with his own worship of himself. I would think this would apply to being the President of the United States. A formal diagnosis of DSM would allow the triggering of the set of procedures set forth under the 25th Amendment to our Constitution, to wit : Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments [the Cabinet] or other such body as Congress may by law provide…transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office…). What then follows are the impeachment preparations we all grew familiar with not too long ago in the cases of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
The second possibility is that some of his obvious transgressions, such as issuing orders without consulting the heads of the government departments tasked with forming and enforcing them, appointing members of his family or cronies whose conflicts of interest are glaringly apparent to advisory positions, or infringing on the rights of citizens on the basis of their ethnicity, could well be taken to conform to the definition of the term “misdemeanors” as specified in Article Two, Section 4 of that Constitution. (There are also the questions of whether his duties may border on the issue of bribery, in view of his commercial ties — according to the so-called “emoluments” clause — should count, and whether his admitted addiction to grabbing women by their pussies, though obviously a civil misdemeanor, should also count, since at least so far as we know they have been discontinued since he took office.) “High crimes and misdemeanors” are also Constitutional grounds for impeachment, although “high crime” is better defined (treason, for example, and bribery) than “misdemeanors”.
The third possibility is that the long-awaited disclosure of his tax returns shows that he has been engaging in illegal activity throughout his long-running streak of failed businesses and bankruptcies, only a portion of which involves failure to pay his taxes. (He is currently involved in 75 actively ongoing lawsuits, brought either by him or against him, for various alleged illegalities. He is an inveterate litigator, having been involved in at least 4,000 lawsuits during his business career — incidentally putting a severe strain on the court system that he refuses to support with his taxes.) This makes it possible that he could somewhere along the line become a convicted felon and thus be disqualified permanently from federal office. Exactly how such a development would be handled by his new Attorney General is not clear.
Unfortunately the first two cases would require the votes of two thirds of the House of Representatives, a possibility that seems remote given its current makeup of career-seeking cookie-jar-raiders and Tea Party nuts. Sycophancy is an addictive drug, especially when the bully in chief is notorious for agreeing with the last person who has emerged from his bear hug.
This leaves non-Trumpists with no obvious course except civil disobedience, which, if performed judiciously, can be accompanied by almost indefinite delays while the courts try to clear their backlogs. Those delays can be accompanied by obstructionist motions and stays of execution, and if dragged out long enough, can result in eventual victory by stalling. Ask your friend who is a partner in a white-shoe law firm for advice about this. It’s a law school specialty, I’m told.
There are signs that we have already begun to act on this. The Women’s March after the swearing-in ceremonies in January turned out ten times Trump’s inauguration crowd, which seriously got his goat. More marches and demonstrations are being scheduled for the coming weeks and months. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates has been fired for doing her part. GoFundMe came up with over a million dollars within 24 hours following the mosque fire in Texas. Thousands of State Department employees have signed a letter of protest against reckless foreign policy edicts issued from the White House with no advance consultation. The actions of the Department of Homeland Security at international airports everywhere in the country now bring flash crowds of protesters. “Build that wall!” has been pretty much discredited except by chicken-hearted NFL Super Bowl TV advertisers, and Hillary does not seem to be in danger of going to jail anytime soon. Some of the wilder promises from the campaign are being quietly swept under the rug. (Remember “We can just take their oil”?) Millions of people now keep the Capitol switchboard’s number on their cell phones (202 225-3121, in case you have forgotten Michael Moore’s mantra), and if their calls go through (mine so far haven’t) the messages to specific lawmakers are not very likely to be pro-Trump. Whether a sufficient number of legislative spines can be stiffened by such a barrage remains to be seen.
(My humble suggestion is that distribution centers be set up, maybe supported by GoFundMe, to hand out pink pussy hats for the ladies and tangerine-colored toupees for the gentlemen so that whenever Trump is confronted by a crowd he will be reminded that he is scorned by a “yuge” majority of his citizens. This, according to the above-cited manual on mental disorders, might well provoke such confusion that it could become self-destructive. The shrinks say he could be moved to resign in a sudden huff or even suffer an apoplectic seizure, but this is probably not a good bet. If shrinks are our last hope we are really in trouble.)
Realistically, concerted foot-dragging and organized opposition would seem to be the only practical options. It will take some time for The Donald’s chanting troops to understand that their health insurance is being taken away, their consumer protections aborted (no more regulation of anyone out to make a buck out of someone else’s need), their mortgages foreclosed, and their refinancing loans denied, as well as all federal programs intended to aid students, fund schools, subsidize transportation, provide a shield against pandemics such as Ebola and Zika, teach science, prevent mass suffocation by atmospheric pollution or flooding of low-lying areas, and keep their priests and for-profit ministers from becoming politicians are being ended. As the results of these measures sink in, and as low-income neighborhoods are replaced by golf courses where graft-accepting mayors can go a round or two with equally graft-accepting governors and B-list celebrities (the entertainment A-listers having quit Trump golf clubs and resorts in protest and embarrassment), as federally-backed crop loans disappear and credit for farm machinery becomes more and more expensive, and as factory jobs are turned over to robots (made both here and in China), they will slowly discover what a “superior” brain with no brake pedal, no experience beyond a knee-length red necktie and a fish-mouth sneer, and no tolerance for advice can do to a republic. The clean-up job for the next President will be enormous, but if we keep our heads and our resolve, not impossible. By 2018 we should be in position to pretty much completely stymie The Donald, even if we can’t get rid of him entirely. Without allies even the biggest blackest signature he can hold up for the cameras will not be black enough or big enough to accomplish much.
Let us hope that by then his strong-arm tactics will not have pushed us into a war with either a newly resuscitated Putin or an already insane Kim Jong-un. ISIS may realistically be only a flea on the elephant’s back, but if it serves to distract our Dr. Strangeloves from their wilder daydreams the struggle against it may yet prove a blessing. Iraq now seems to be a lost cause and most of the Arabic Muslim world along with it, but we seem to be doomed to hang around the neighborhood no matter which party is in power in Washington. Thank you, George W. Bush and the American Petroleum Institute..
So hang onto your pussy hats (and your tangerine toupees) and take it one day at a time. Improvisation is the name of the game. Survival is the name of the objective — not letting the Framers’ torch go out.
Good luck to us all.
Vance Weaver 